Gold Coast whale dies in shark net: Video

July 24, 2014

This is newly released footage of a lifeless whale just minutes after it drowned at the Billinga shark nets on Sunday July 20. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw-NA886JO8
The resident who made the footage had called the Queensland Fisheries hotline when she and her partner first saw the whale splashing around at 11.20am to alert the Shark Control Program’s Marine Animal Release Team, but the team arrived too late to save the whale.
Experts say the whale might be a brydes or a minke, instead of a humpback calf as reported by Queensland Fisheries Shark Control Manager Jeff Krause on Gold Coast ABC radio.
Witnesses say they saw a larger whale hanging around. It seemed very distressed as it swam back and fourth blowing repeatedly out of its blow hole.
The whale, which appeared to be the mother, moved away after the caught whale stopped struggling and sank to the bottom. The fact that there was a mother with the young whale suggests it was a humpback.
Apparently the caught whale had tried to swim under the shark nets.
Gold Coast Whale research group Humpbacks and Highrises, who posted the video, are calling for all Gold Coast shark nets to be removed during the humpback’s winter migration.
Another two whales have been caught in sharknets at Kirra since this whale’s death but were released by the Sea World boat.

For more details on the shark net issue see here.
To read an interview with the resident who took the footage with her partner click here.
For a netted humpback story with a much happier ending have a look at this Youtube

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It’s still unclear if it’s a humpback calf or a brydes or minke, but with the East Coast Population of humpbacks rising 10 percent a year there is a noted increased diversity in their movements and patterns. I think the fact that another one was caught in nets nearby yesterday points at that, so whales caught in nets will be more common. Look at this article to see about humpbacks migrationary patterns branching out http://blankgc.com.au/whodunnit-the-case-of-the-fat-happy-humpbacks/

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